Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Lovesong for Satoshi Nakamoto Whitepaper [sic]

Why should a macroeconomist care? OpenBazaar is the most public manifestation of Darknet markets. People with control issues like to think that Silk Road was the end of the story; I view it as the end of the beginning.

Remember, you heard it here first.

When you hear inequality activists like Piketty advocate global wealth taxes, think about why he would be so concerned about getting at wealth that’s gotten beyond particular national borders. When you hear politicians grouse about profits that are not repatriated, think about how they view the world if taxes are their source of funding. When you hear about inversions (Pfizer is currently in the news about this), think about whether physical location is an important as virtual presence.

The macroeconomic news story for the rest of your life is going to be that governments have made expensive promises based on political borders scratched out over the physical world, without recognizing that their tax base is going virtual. Marc Andreessen’s most famous quote is “software is eating the world”. It ate the market for compact discs in less than 5 years. It’s going to eat discretionary government spending over the next generation.

P.S. Not sure why there’s that other stuff appended to the end of the video.